One of the things that I especially LOVE about rubber stamps is their versatility. When designing, I always like to have more than one use in mind for stamped images. So for Stamptember, I thought it would be fun to show 2 ways to use one stamp. Here’s the first, using a BRAND NEW...floral collage Stamp-it Stencil-it...

The Stamp-it Stencil-its all have the stamp and the coordinating stencil in the same package. They make life simple.Let’s start with a basic card.

Working on the smooth side of the cardstock use Jet Black to stamp the floral collage centered, toward the top of the card & dry.Position the coordinating stencil over the flowers portion of the stamped image, Ink over the flowers with Tiger Lily Archival ink, using the blending tool.

With the stencil still in place, add bit of Buttercup Archival to highlight the tops of the petals.

Stamp the largest leaf onto a Post-It & cut it out, right on the line...

Place the Post-it over the large leaf to mask it off, then ink the polka dot stamp with Fern Green Archival and stamp the lower section of the card. Remove the mask and the stamping appears to be under the leaf. I saw this when I first discovered stamping & thought it was MAGIC!

Use Jet Black to stamp the sentiment on a watercolor scrap. Lightly ink the edges with Leaf Green & add toward the bottom of the card.Add watercolor panel to the black card base. Add black glaze pen dots to accent the flower center and the base of the small flower.

This quickly creates a completely flat, easy to mail card.

The stencil acts as a stencil, so you can add color and it masks off the background at the same time. This allows ink to be added using the blending tool, for quick easy coverage.

Now, let’s use that same stamp again and take it up a notch.

KINDNESS CARDCover a sheet of clear, Clearly for Art (CFA) with a thin layer of Glue N Seal. Add Newsprint over the adhesive, burnish & give it a quick 10 second dry.Cut several small pieces, or use scraps.Ink the floral collage stamp with Jet Black & press the Newsprint side over the inked flower portion of the floral collage stamp and the leaves. Repeat & stamp/cut out 2 flowers and 3 leaves, one of each.

To create the card base, add one drop of Cornflower Blue reinker to the craft sheet and sprinkle with rubbing alcohol. Any percentage of rubbing alcohol is fine. Get the cheapest you can find...Rubbing alcohol will also remove the archival ink from stencils & your craft sheet.

Use the palette knife to mix the reinker into the alcohol. Place the manila cardstock into the inky solution & it will immediately absorb the fluid. Dry.